Here's a question for you effects guys... I've got a Sadowsky outboard preamp that I want to run in conjuction with a couple of Boss pedals and an envelope filter. Should I put the preamp at the start of the chain, or at the end? I'm thinking the start as I want to basically treat it as an onboard preamp, but outboard.. But then if I want to use the D.I. I won't have any of the effects going to the desk, as they're after the D.I...

Come on, the cat who uses his effects the least puts his pics up first? For shame...

Here's mine:

The one on the right goes everywhere with me, the two on the left tend not to get used that much...I think if I was playing in certain settings, I'd use them way more. I really dig the bass balls for the filter + distortion sound it produces - such a simple little pedal but it sound juuust right for what I'm after

I previously had a Crybaby 105Q (the white one) but I ended up mainly using it like an envelope filter, so sold it and got the Q-Tron a bit later down the track instead.

My new board is a work in progress, and my old board has been disassembled.

Rick wrote:Should I put the preamp at the start of the chain, or at the end? I'm thinking the start as I want to basically treat it as an onboard preamp, but outboard.. But then if I want to use the D.I. I won't have any of the effects going to the desk, as they're after the D.I...

That's a dillema many of us have faced. Some people are happy not to have their effects going to FOH.

Ultimately a box such as the Sadowsky is either a DI box or a preamp, not both. Pick one and buy something else to do the other job!

Others like the EBS MicroBass have an effects loop so you can supposedly have your cake and eat it, but I've never found an effects loop that I like the sound of and the MicroBass's loop is no exception.

I don't have much need for chorus, phaser, flanger, delay or octaver, so for those rare occasions the ME-20B is adequate for my needs, plus I can use it's tuner and volume pedal in the chain as well, to save space on the pedal board.

Yeah, I'm thinking of just using it at the start of my chain (before effects) and use the D.I. on my amp. The Sadowsky sounds so damn good as a preamp, I'll probably leave it on all the time. It'll give me a fatter signal for the effects that way.

niftydog wrote:My new board is a work in progress, and my old board has been disassembled.

Rick wrote:Should I put the preamp at the start of the chain, or at the end? I'm thinking the start as I want to basically treat it as an onboard preamp, but outboard.. But then if I want to use the D.I. I won't have any of the effects going to the desk, as they're after the D.I...

That's a dillema many of us have faced. Some people are happy not to have their effects going to FOH.

Ultimately a box such as the Sadowsky is either a DI box or a preamp, not both. Pick one and buy something else to do the other job!

Others like the EBS MicroBass have an effects loop so you can supposedly have your cake and eat it, but I've never found an effects loop that I like the sound of and the MicroBass's loop is no exception.